Born, like other comic book characters, out of an otherwise trivial but life-changing animal bite, the Rabid Librarian seeks out strange, useless facts, raves about real and perceived injustices, and seeks to meet her greatest challenge of all--her own life.

Unshelved

by Bill Barnes and Gene Ambaum

Sunday, June 18, 2017

Veni, vidi, legi

Terence Tunberg was one of my professors at UK. I have his Latin translation of 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas'. I also have other translators' versions of 'Winnie the Pooh', 'Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone', and 'The Hobbit'. And yes, I can read them, albeit I may have to reach for a dictionary on occasion, as my Latin is a bit rusty.

Tunberg, who specializes in neo-Latin, or the use of Latin after the Romans were dead and gone, never planned on translating kids’ books, but was contacted by prominent Classics textbook publisher Bolchazy-Carducci, who had purchased the rights to some of Dr. Seuss’s works. Given his background with the language, and his interest in how Latin evolved after Rome, the prospect of translating these modern works was right up his alley. Of course, the real reasons for the project didn’t escape him.

“As a textbook publisher, they’re out to make money. They caught on to the idea that if they have very young children’s stories in Latin along with the regular books by Caesar and Cicero and all these other people, it would be a draw. And they were right. I still get royalties,” says Tunberg.